Denver’s Landmark Preservation Commission made the right call when its members unanimously shot down an effort by a University of Colorado student to have the old Gates Rubber Co. property landmarked.

The site is a cesspool of contamination, and anything that slows efforts to clean it up and make it ready for re-development is just wasting time.

Eugene Elliott, a CU senior, had ponied up $250 and asked for the designation for three buildings at the site, even though he has almost no connection with the property, unless you count the five times he trespassed to engage in “urban exploring.”

The commission agreed with a staff study, which concluded the site has “low preservation potential.”

Now that this sideshow is concluded, property owners can get on with tearing down the remaining buildings, cleaning up the industrial contamination and marketing the site for redevelopment.

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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